UMECUnited Mining Exploration Commission: A group of friends playing JumpGate-- "a MMORPG that launched smoothly, breaks from fantasy character setting, emphasizes PvP, and is the first persistent world space simulator that nobody talks about." ~Scorch

Merely introducing myself to the community, vileSyndrome, or vileS for short. Just fired up this game yesterday to get through the tutorial, and it's a very interesting game.

There are some social aspects that I need to get used to, however it has a lot of potential.

My biggest concern is buying a new ship. I asked this in the #help channel yesterday, however for a Gallente, what would you recommend as a "good starting off vessel".

Main focus is defending myself, with a side in mining. Not too interested in PvP yet.

Same goes for equipment for said vessel, what would be recommended.

Thanks

Brej Donierik wrote:

Just look at the market and see what you can afford, as far as Gallente Frigates go. Imicus is good for mining, Tristan is good for combat (although it may be a tad more expensive than you can afford right now). The Navitas and the Atron are the cheaper versions, affordable by newbies several hours earlier than the other frigates.

As far as equipment, for mining you need a ship with a big cargo (and hopefully lots of CPU and maybe even a mining bonus, if you can find a ship like that) as many mining lasers as you can fit, as many cargo expanders as you can fit, scout drones for defense or mining drones for extra mining output, maybe a shield or afterburner or ore scanner in the mid slots. Or capacitor rechargers.

For combat, as many small hybrid guns as you can fit (decide on whether you want long range rails or short range blasters), scout drones, afterburner, and then the decision to go with shield defense (booster, extender) or armor defense (repairer, plates) depends on the number of med slots vs. low slots available.

All the gear suggested above may require you to buy extra skills, these skills are listed in-game if you right-click and show info on the item itself, or find it on the market and click the blue info button for it.

F'nog wrote:

The Tristan doesn't make a very good blaster ship. It's slow as a pig. Rails and a standard launcher make a good combo, especially for a new player, since you can keep far away from the enemy and not have to worry about taking a lot of damage.

DaHeaVYFo wrote:

seconded.

Range = your win button as a new player. go for 125mm railguns (150mm will stress its fitting and does barely do more damage) (I'm not gonna mention what Damage over time is).

Go for an Afterburner in the medium slots to keep you out of range,
Add a shieldbooster and see how well you do against npc's.

add co-processors, power diagnostic units, reactor control units in you lowslots to get the fitting right. (Micro auxillary powercores are for the advanced users)

Try to fit how u like it, don't be torn if you can't fit the above. You need a skill to whipe your ass in this game

vileS wrote:

Thanks for all the great advice, gang. Also got a lot of help from the #help channel in game. By far one of the better communities for helping out new bloods :)

I went with the Imicus, fitted it with a cpu upgrade, to push up to 147 cpu, and duel welded it with two basic miners, and one cargo expander. Not to mention shields and an after burner "just in case".

For combat, have a 150mm Rail, with Antimatter charges, and the basic blaster from my original ship.

Still learning a great deal, but feel pretty comfortable after day two. After racking up a couple of neat upgrades, and 250k in ISK, I think I'm started off pretty well :)

Having a blast.

SpaceDrake Storyteller wrote:

Get rid of the basic blaster. It isn't worth the hull space. Even a Light Electron is far superior.

Also... personally, I don't like using low-range ammo like Antimatter in a Railgun (or any long-range weapon). Remember, the range modifiers for ammo are percentage based. In a short range blaster that won't matter quite so much, and you can go for the totally crazy damage. In a railgun, though, that -50% modifier cuts your optimal range from 10,000m to 5,000m (roughly, varies a bit from gun to gun.) Personally, I wouldn't use any ammo with greater than a -25% range mod in a "range" gun. (That'd be Uranium in your case.) It's up to the pilot in the end, of course, but the way I see it, if you want range, go for range, if you want to sling antimatter around, get some blasters.

I also stand behind my blaster-Tristan statements. Sure, it's a bit slow, but it's got good slots and defenses, and a pretty good grid to boot. With some skill upping (Engineering 4), you can easily get a pair of Neutrons, a Rocket Launcher, an AB, a small Armor Repairer and a Webber on. That's more than enough for some solid NPCing. Skill up to a Micro Aux. Power Core and you can stuff another EW med slot item on there and a plate or hardener of some kind. All the while, you'll be getting huge hits off of Tech 1 guns and they'll be tracking very quickly to boot.

vileS wrote:

Day 4 update. Seems the "daily maintenance" reboot happens right before I go to work, so I can usually get in a quick mining run before the server comes down.

I am now the proud owner of 4 vessels, and keep to mining Scordite using my Imicus. Two mining 1 lasers, and two civilian cargo expanders, I can pull in about 32,000 isk every 10 minutes or so, including warp and sell time. Not a bad flow at all for me :) having fun with it.

Yesterday, however, I decided to get my feet wet in combat. Keeping it very safe, decided to attack some blood vessels near a few asteroid belts.

I honestly can't remember the weapon I have equiped, but I know it uses anti matter charge, and hit for a low of 22 and a high of 121 at about 500-2000m.

The Vessel itself is an Atron(?), with civilian shields and afterburner, plus a armor hull repair slot, and a cargo expander for good measure.

Still investing in skills / talents, should have Rank 3 Frigate piloting by 7pm tonight. Time for another new ship ;)